In Accordance with State Law...

I have a bone to pick with television advertising. For the past week, I have watched many commercials, but not one mentioned a small phrase most people these days say, "Merry Christmas!". Instead, we got to go a little strict on the constitution and grant people freedom of religion by saying "Happy Holidays!". That's so dumb! We already know there will be only three holidays celebrated this month, Christmas, Quanza, and the Jewish one. So why aren't we saying Merry Christmas? People are getting mad at politics, saying that they are pushing Christianity on people, and saying Merry Christmas is an example of that. We can say Merry Christmas if we want, Quanza is virtually the same thing, and Jews are cool; they don't care. So instead of being a wussy, let's take a stand and bring back the two words that can brighten up anyones day.

The Church Optimus Prime Would Attend

*The main reason for this is only pure opinion, I do not intend on insulting anyone's religious beliefs, sinful ways, or church preferences. If you know anyone I mention, even though I do not give exact names, please do not exploit them Also, if I have offended you in any way, talk to me, cause thats not the reason for this blog*



Lately, I have had this struggle with mega-churches, like Newspring, Marathon, Rock Springs, etc., and the religion supporting it.



Problem 1: I have talked to people who go to these mega-churches, and if I saw some of them walking the streets, I wouldn't be able to know the difference between if they are pure of heart or just a good person. One person backed me up saying that their church baptises 200 people each week. Thats awesome! One thing though, where are they? If you have all these people coming to Christ, then why aren't they making a difference, or spreading the witness? I have also heard that certain people coming down to the alter and crying every single Sunday. Thats a problem. You shouldn't be having these big huge revelations week after week. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the alter at all, I LOVE THE ALTER!, but when you are making commitments every Sunday, that I normally would every year, then you truly aren't seeing the beauty of Christ full-on.



Problem 2: Massive churches like that are big for mainly only one reason, entertainment. I love getting pumped for Jesus, screaming and moshing is a blast, but every week is ridiculous. Sometimes, people need to hear the truth. "You are saved! Now you get into heaven without any question!" WRONG!!! Sometimes, it's hard being a christian. There are some days at school where I want to curse, or nights when I want to look at pornography, but I know how to handle them because my church has prepared me, as opposed to teaching me only about how good GOD is. I want the church to tell me the truth. "Sometimes faith isn't easy, it takes time, and it takes downfall. Everyone is going to fall, bad. You need to have the strength to get back up and not give in once things get hard", which are things I hear some Sundays.



Problem 3: Why the heck do pastor's need body guards? Shouldn't a man who has dedicated his life to Christ have enough faith to be able to walk to "the stage" and not need 3 big guys following him? I heard that some of these pastors have body guards, and I wanted to cry. You shouldn't have worries during a Sunday morning service, ITS CHURCH! There shouldn't even be people who want to kill a pastor in a church anyways. Am I saying ignore bad people in a church? No, not at all, those are the ones we need to help. But those body guards put up a big sign that says, "I'm scared of helping the lost, so I'm going to have these big guys between me and a lost soul, so I can't make close contact with him and don't get hurt" Thats wrong!



I laid it on pretty thick in this blog! Its just something I had to get out there!

Live/eviL

In Sunday School this past week, Alex stated that the cure for all evil, is to destroy evil inside and out. A rebutle came out of Dad and Eddie saying that if we destroy all evil, and all those who are evil, we aren't staying on Earth very long, cause we are going with them. I think that the cure to evil, however, is evil itself. My theory (just a theory) is that one day, evil people will become so prideful and drowned in their own shame that the only place to go, is up. Thats where us as Christians get to have our joyess fun of bringing others to Jesus. I have another theory (two blogs in one today). The best way to witness, is not to witness. Let those who are drowning in that sin look at you and realize that they want to be like you, pure and good for Christ. So prepare yourself for those who ask you, "Why are you like that all the time?", you can just look at them and smile.

In regards to the title, I have this to say. If we have no evil, there is no life. I also thought it was cool that if you reverse evil, it makes live. Just a side note.

|←Read Between the Lines→|

I made an interesting myspace summary the other day. I will always get on about 9ish or so, just to check it before I go night-night, and I will always see at least 3 different posts in bullitens of someone saying "I had the worst day ever!". Odd thing is, it's always from non-religious people. Now, I'm not sure if this is just me being lucky or something, but I have had Jesus in my life since birth, and my bad days since then have totaled to 3, ever. Out of my 4200+ days on Earth, only 3 have been actually considered to me to be bad. But its me who is the one who needs to show the others that the reason for your bad day is not having Jesus. Think about it, if you are a christian and reading this, you know that there is that one secular friend you have that is just having a crap life. If that applies, it should be your initiative to witness to that one person.

Even the Rooster Sleeps Later Than This!!

Well, it's that time of year again, Clemson games. One more year of waking up at 3:30 AM. One more years of yelling jerks. One more year of the hot sun. One more year of the hardcore directional pointing. One more year of the magical green vests. One more year of walking 10 minutes to go pee. So far this year, I have almost collapsed of heat exhaustion, gotten run over, almost witnessed a fight, reported multiple cases of indescent exposure (peeing out of the bed of a truck is just stupid), gotten burnt twice, 4 ant bites, 7 misquito bites, gotten offered beer, been called mulitple words sailors use, and it has only been 3 games. Although all this trouble, I still have to realize that all this pain will pay off with Set Apart 07. And its kind of fun getting to spend time with friends. I will have a full blog on the subject come mid-December.

Roller Coaster Tycoon

Tonight, Matt compared christianity to a balloon ride, but I think that is a little innaccurate (not meaning to bag on your sermon Matt, it was a really good one). In my opinion, your relationship with Jesus is like a roller coaster more than anything, the higher you are on the coaster is like your religious "spice". Here is my reasoning for saying that. A strong religious event, like a convention would be in my case, would get the kart on the track going up the first hill, as being compared to rising up for Jesus. And everyone likes that feeling of being on top, knowing that you don't know whats coming, and your adrenaline is just going all over the place. Then, you start to fall (and everyone falls). For some people, that first drop is amazing, while to others, its a scary feeling they don't want to experience again, but yet the ride continues. And there are some loops occasionally where you get those few moments of excitement, but nothing too outrageous. Eventually though, you will end up back at the station, where you can start your religious track again, or get off the ride. That may seem a little harsh, but we all know it happens. I want to be like that safety bar though, and hold people into their seat as long as possible. What does this mean for you? You are the one building your ride. GOD just has the blueprints already. Make it however you choose. Mine however, is unfinished, and I like it like that!

Repeating Repentence

Steve Pickel preached on something this morning that I thought was very interesting, and made me wonder. There are those people who think that they can do whatever they want, and know they can just ask GOD for forgiveness later. Yes, you can do that, but why would you? Just because you can say you are sorry for drinking or cursing or whatever it is, and GOD will give forgiveness, doesn't mean you always should. "Repenting is a gift", Steve said this morning. If you use a gift too much beyond its advantage, you are going to loose it. Forgiveness only goes so far. So here is the picture I'm trying to create. You can ask GOD for repentence, but when you sin intentionally, just so you can ask for that thankfulness, I don't think thats right. What are your thoughts on the issue?

PEN15 and Birds of Prey

Well, I haven't posted in over a month, so sorry for not giving you stuff to read. School starts back on Tuesday, and I could not be more dreadful. I get to be a sophmore this year, which has its pros and cons. I won't get made fun of nearly as much as a freshman, I get to have better classes, my day is going to seem a lot shorter, and I'm used to the routine. The downside is that I get thrown out into the high school field to deal with all the jerks in the entire school, I will have to work a lot harder, and I have a career center class (that may not seem bad, but I get sick on bus rides, so I'm probably going to get sick on the way up there every day). It could be a lot worse, but I just have to get in my mind that GOD is going to be right there by my side, and that i have nothing to be worried about (except for the fact that Lindsey is in the homeroom next to me, which is anybody's biggest nightmare. JK). So I will try and blog more often, but with school coming around, I seriously doubt it.

Initiation

Tonight, Matt was issuing everyone challenges. Almost all of them regarded the opposite sex. Shawn has a month to get a date. Jen and Hannah had 15 minutes to take 5 pictures with 5 different guys, and barely passed. Evan had to get three girls' numbers, but didn't, so he failed. I personally passed my challenge in two minutes; I had the whole night. I had to take a pic with a hot girl that Matt, Jacob, and Shawn all approved of. I was happy, Matt owes me an ice cream!

Camp Stories Part Two: WWE

In our room, we had brawls out the bunghole. There were various things including tackles, drop kicks, and wrestling. Jacob even introduced us to a game of nutball(email me for the rules). Also, we had chicken fights where two guys would run from one side of the room to the other, and just barrel into each other. Thats all I got, but its something none of the girls knew!

Camp Stories Part One: I Need A Towel

Thursday Night, all the campers were hanging out outside in the pouring down rain. Curfew comes comes around at midnight and it is raining the hardest I have ever seen. Olivia comes to our door and asks for a towel. Now knowing Jacob, since this was his bad-boy idea, he always does the exact opposite. Instead of getting a towel, he gets a bucket of water, and throws it on Olivia, when she asks for a towel. Michael Mosley comes in giving us all fives, saying that it was the best prank all camp, and I agree. More stories coming later!

A Magician Couldn't Even Get These Off!

At church Wednesday night, we were continuing our series "Prisonbreak". Matt started off the service by putting on handcuffs. He then said that Kristen was going to unlock him from the cuffs, as a symbol of GOD releasing the cuffs. When Kristen went to unlock the cuffs, she held the key eye level, as both her and Matt glared at it intently, the key was broke! The key had been broken inside the lock on the cuffs, causing Matt to be trapped in these things until he could get loose. He decided to end service early and go outside to hang out. After about an hour, most of the Youth leave and go to Sonic, while Matt and Kris go to the Police Department to get him free. After a half hour or so, Matt and Kris come to Sonic, with Matt only having off one cuff. Since the key had been lodged in one of the locks, he couldn't get one free. Luckily, my uncle was there with a grinder(for dummies, thats a circular blade attached to an engine to make it spin fast). My uncle put a glove between Matt's arm and the cuff, and started shredding. Matt is in pain since the metal is hot, we are all taking picture, all the time we are in the parking lot of a Sonic. Well, Matt finally gets free, with a few blisters, and a funny story that will have him scarred at Youth Camp! Email for pictures: jesusfreakx@bellsouth.net

The Waterfalls of No Existance

Yesterday, Shawn, Hannah, Kristen, Lindsey, Jen, and I all went up to Table Rock to hike to the waterfalls. When we got there, everyone gave there phone to Lindsey, who kept a gym bag with water and other various items. When we started hiking, we realized that everyone had been to the waterfalls plenty of time to know where it was, so Shawn, Hannah, and I took off jogging to get a head start. We stop about 3 minutes from the waterfalls(the waterfalls are in sight), and wait for the other three girls to catch up. About 15 minutes pass and we get no answer. So we hike back down and discover that they not only aren't on the trail, but that they have been hiking for an hour on the wrong trail heading the other direction(keep in mind that it is KRISTEN, JEN, AND LINDSEY). We call them on Shawn's phone, which was left in the car in case of an emergency, and tell them to turn around and that Shawn and I would go get them. Hannah stayed at the cars for fear of an allergic reaction to something in the woods. We start running up the hill, and get about 30 minutes in and find the girls. They honestly thought that they were headed to the waterfalls. At this point, me and Shawn have our shirts off, we are drained off all our energy, and Hannah has been sitting at the cars with an minor allergic reaction to something, by herself for half an hour. We get back to the cars, head back to our house, and watch a movie, never once accomplishing our goal of going to the waterfalls.


Moral of the story: Don't hike with girls!

ETERNITY is an 8-Letter Reality

I was up late one night watching the Amazing Race, and something caught my eye. One of the tasks they had to do was to find a map and locate the George Washington bridge. One family stop to ask this truck driver for instructions. When they finished, the women immediatly, without hesistation asked the man if he knew Jesus. He answered with saying that he is his best friend. The women replied with this, "Thats wonderful! We will be spending eternity together". That phrase made me think about eternity in heaven, and to be honest, scared me a little. It scared me because living forever is just terrifying to me. It makes my living on Earth 50,000 times harder than before, phasing to me that if I mess/messed up somewhere, and The Rapture comes before I can fix it, I can't spend eternity with the greatest one of all and have to spend it with some loser satan in hell. That is why everyone needs to make sure they stay on the right path with GOD, an not resist into temptation, whenever it may occur. So that everyone, without a doubt, knows that they will be spending eternity with that trucker and the woman.

Ø

I watched a video recently on Youtube. IT was Family Force 5 performing Luv Addict on a news station out of Missouri. It stuck to me for two reasons: one was that ChapStique played the guitar with a dragon, which I found funny, and two because they always refered to them as a christian band. After the performance, the reporter asked Soul Glow, "Why do you label yourself as christians? When we hear that music, it certainly doesn't sound like christian music to me". Soul Glow replied with a good answer that every christian can abide by, "We love Jesus Christ with all our hearts. That doesn't mean that we don't have the freedom to have fun, like right now, I can wear pink sneckers and be fine with it." I found that piece of information interesting to my life!

Portable Sounds To Kill Your Ears

Tonight, I went to a concert, and my gosh has it been a while. People playing at the concert were TobyMac, Family Force 5, and Thousand Foot Krutch(Building 429 was also there, but they didn't really fit in). It reminded me so much of being at a convention though being up with all the people in the mosh, jumping around, and just having the time of my life. Somehow, every human being I knew ended up being there. SWU students, kids from school, ex-girlfriends, and even people I have seen before, but couldn't place. All in all though, I walked away with multiple aches and pains, mainly in the neck region, but I had the best time of my life!

A Mutual Agreement

I have come to a realization. Ashley and I tonight both decided(she inticed it, and I agreed with it)that we were better off as friends. In my opinion, I like it better because I have the greatest friends in the world, and now she can join them. I'm not sad or disappointed because this has made me realize that I'm not ready for a relationship yet. Short one, I know, but I was just letting people know so they weren't all, "OH MY GOSH!"

I am not Jim Hendrix's son

On Wednesday, I got called out of class for the monthly drug dog inspection, but somehow the dog hit on my bookbag(for dummies, that means the dog found something). I get called out of class so that he could tell me that he searched my bookbag and that they found nothing. I told the Youth Group that and now I have a running joke going that I'm a druggy. So if you hear anyone saying something like that, just chime in and make jokes, because I couldn't care-less. One more thing. My mom is growing tomatoes/onions in our house. When we had the crew over Friday, the new joke is now that I deal drugs along with grow them. Its actually pretty funny.

Lets Break Out The Shotguns, We're Going to Town

I was told the other day that I didn't look like the normal rocker and that I looked more like a farm boy than anything. There were multiple feelings in that statement. It was an insult because I don't look redneck and don't want to be associated as one. It was also a compliment. I don't look like the normal rocker because I'm not a normal rocker. A normal rocker does drugs and gets kicked out of school more times than Michael Jackson gets lawsuits. I don't wanna be one of them. I love rock music to death though, but I'm not really impressed with the rocker lifestyles of it though. People have looked at me because of the bands I listen to(Norma Jean, Underoath, etc.)and assume that I'm one of those bad preacher's kids that doesn't give a crap about church, but yet I just tell them that I listen to what I want, and if GOD doesn't like it, he will tell me, in which it would be the christian thing to do to stop and ask him what I need to listen to to best express my life as a christian. Just a random thought that I felt like expressing.

I Hate Missing Church

I woke up at about 2 this morning with a massive pain in my throat. I had to stay home from church. Im a little scared because I have never gotten a pain this sharp in my mouth. Just pray for me please!

The blog thing

Matt and Matt(Matt Rhodes and Matt Smith)have gotten me interested in this website, so I guess Im gonna start doing the blogging thing too. I wont do it everyday, but once in a while whenever I feel like saying something.